Generalism in medical education: the next steps

The Association of American Medical Colleges accepted in full the strategies recommended by its Generalist Task Force in 1992, in particular the central goal that a majority of graduating medical students be committed to careers in generalist specialties and that medical schools make appropriate efforts to reach this goal as quickly as possible. Both generalists and specialists need a revised education. For example, they will have to master intellectually challenging analytic sciences fundamental to general practice, such as clinical epidemiology, decision analysis, health care economics, and medical informatics. Also, they must be educated in ambulatory care settings, which are most like generalist medical practice. Also, the medical faculty must contain large numbers of generalists, who will serve on important institutional committees and be involved in health services research and decision analysis. To educate generalist physicians, academic medicine must tackle many challenges effectively. It will, because medical education has a fundamental responsibility to produce a physician workforce that meets the needs of the American people.